i. You start getting your orders from Al Mualim. He explains that he didn’t really kill you and that you are starting over with reduced skills and no weapons. You’re also back to only four synchronization bars. Bringing up the map will tell you to “Investigate and find Masyaf’s Traitor.”

ii. As a side note, the flag quests are activated now though there are places that you cannot get to. You can start collecting, but keep track of which ones you have reached if you do. This is still a sort of tutorial mission, introducing the intelligence gathering activities.

iii. Head to the fortress entrance and meet your temporary teacher for instructions. He gives you an eavesdropping assignment. There’s a bench to the southwest of the people you need to listen to. Sit there, select them and press “Y” to hear the story. This activates a pickpocket mission.

iv. Head near to the person you have to pickpocket, select them to activate the scene. After they chat, you get to follow and pick your first pocket. Stay behind and your left hand will reach out when you hold the “B” button. Try to get your left hand to touch his back pouch, but turn and move away if the target stops or turns toward you. Success activates an interrogation and you have an attachment, a letter you can read.

v. Go to the orator and select him to activate. He’ll yap a while longer then move off. Follow him to a secluded garden area and punch him a few times. He’ll tell you what he knows, that he did what he thought was right. And you fast forward.

g. Memory Block 2 – Traveling to Damascus

i. Al Mualim confronts and kills the traitor in a glitchy video. He tells you that you have nine people to kill. You are now Rank 1. You get your sword and hidden blade back. You get a fifth synchronization bar as well.

ii. From here on, the goals of each block are more clear cut. You’ll have between one and three targets in each Memory Block. For each, you’ll travel to a city, gather info and complete side quests, and then take out your target. In this case, you’re ordered to Damascus to kill Tamir.

iii. When you leave the building, the training master will confront you and you learn about the “Combo Kill”. When you do one of these correctly, the second “Combo” attack seems like a video. You need to hit this fifty times for an achievement, but three will get you out of the training ring.

iv. Head out the front gate, get a horse, and continue the path to the “Kingdom” marker. You’ll get the horse movement tutorial on the way. Kingdom will load when you hit the arches and you’ll see the first tower appear on the map (eagle icon). Go climb the tower on your way to Damascus. Head to the side of the tower away from the road and climb right up the middle by holding the right trigger and “A” buttons. Hit “Y” at the top to synchronize and it will explain about view points. A small section of road and the other 11 Kingdom View Points appear on your map. You’ll also trigger your “sync bar” which keeps track of the “extra” activities you perform. Fifteen will get you an extra bar for your synchronization meter. Leap down and continue.

v. Personally, I prefer to wander in the direction of Damascus here and get the View Points along the way. I’ll get the others on my way to Jerusalem and Acre when I have to go to those places. In general, though, sooner is better than later. Be careful to take not of any flags or Templars you come across while traveling so you aren’t confused about which you have or haven’t gotten. Templars out of order aren’t so bad since there will be a little chest there to mark their locations after they are gone. Flags leave no trace that they ever were, so there’s no way to verify that you’re in the correct spot where a flag used to be.

vi. As you continue, you’ll come to some guards and a cart. They will cause your status to blink red and you’ll need to blend or gallop to avoid a confrontation. Just walking on foot usually works, but you have to blend when you’re on the horse. In this case, galloping works too because you’re gone before they decide to attack you.

vii. Continue on to Damascus, stopping for Towers, Templars, and/or flags as you see fit. When you get there, go through the arches and load the Damascus area.

h. Memory Block 2 –Damascus

i. Work your way down the path toward the front gate where a citizen is being harassed. Save the citizen and he will activate scholars to walk you past the guards and into the city. Follow the prompts and kill the guards. Go stand near the scholars and tap the “A” button once to begin the blend as they escort you inside.

ii. Break the blend by tapping “A” again when you hear another citizen in need of help. Go save that one, too. This will activate a set of scholars to take you back out through the gate should you wish to go.

iii. Now, we need to find view points and our assassin’s HQ for this town. They give you the first View Point on the map, so climb it to activate everything else. If you want to clear rooftops at this point, you have to do it with stealth kills or actual battle since you have no throwing knives. Fortunately, the rooftops are pretty empty in this phase. At this point, the other eight towers in the Damascus Poor District should appear on your map. Additionally, you’ll see a pickpocket opportunity and a couple more citizens in need of saving. My preference is to clear rooftops, visit View Points and save citizens in one section on my way to the Assassin’s Bureau. I can then make another pass to hit the storyline investigations. This lets you see everything at the Assassin’s Bureau. If you get the investigation pieces before you get there, you’ll only see the invitation to assassinate your target.

iv. Saving the other citizens that appeared on your map will activate your first vigilantes.

v. The Assassin’s Bureau is entered through the roof. The symbol for it on the map is the same as for Al Mualim. Get into the area and climb up. The symbol will appear drawn on the roof right over the opening you need to drop into. Go inside and chat with the local leader.

vi. The Damascus assassin leader seems to like you and gives you the advice to seek out info on your target. He also points out that you can never get into the Bureau when you are being hunted. After he’s done talking, go out and do everything doable in the poor district.

vii. The six story-related investigations are as follows:

1. Pickpocket – You get a letter to Tamir about weapons preparation (attachment)

2. Eavesdrop – There will be a meeting with merchants. The merchants aren’t happy about it. There’s a bench south of your targets.

3. Interrogate – There’s an orator in a courtyard. Follow him south and then west around a building and into an alley to beat him up. Find out that Tamir is building weapons for an unknown party and that he oversees his workers directly

4. Eavesdrop – Find out that you can use the beams over the courtyard for travel. There’s a bench to the NW of the target. You get a map with a beam escape route. (attachment)

5. Eavesdrop – Learn that you should have friends along your escape route. There are benches west of your target. This means you should plan to escape through a group of vigilantes and the attachment shows such a route. (attachment)

6. Pickpocket – A man has a letter describing the poor security situation at the souk. You get a map showing access from the roof. (attachment)

viii. There are 9 Towers and 12 citizens to save in the Poor District. There’s also the one citizen outside the city.

i. Memory Block 2 – Damascus, the assassination

i. Go back and talk to the Bureau leader. You need two of the investigations to activate the assassination, but you should do all six. You’ll explain what you have learned and he’ll give you a feather and approval. You’ll see what the feather is for later.

ii. Travel to the courtyard where the assassination will take place and this will start the glitchy video. After it ends, get an eye on Tamir and select him. Make sure you have the hidden blade selected and get in close to do him in. I like starting at the opposite side of the little pool from where he’s giving his little speech.

iii. Once he’s dead, you need to escape. Run out through one of the tunnels and then get up to the rooftops as quickly as you can to get back to the Bureau. You need to get anonymous, which you can in any rooftop garden. The city will remain on alert with gongs going off until you are safely back. Your synchronization bar will remain red during this period as a reminder. No blending here, stay out of sight or you’re hunted.

iv. Chat with the Bureau leader and you’re back to the lab

j. in the lab #3

i. The grumpy doctor leaves and you get to chat with Lucy a few times again. It’s three this time.

ii. Lucy will let you look at her computer and you can read a few emails for her.

iii. Go to bed.

iv. You wake up and doctor annoying is there to get you going.

v. Lucy’s not there yet, so you chat with the doc before you get back in the Animus.